The Best And Worst Technology Company Stocks In Q1 2016

Tech Stocks: Losers Slightly Outnumber Stock Price Winners In Q1 2016

For the 42 publicly traded solution providers on our watch list, 2016 didn't get off to a great start, as only 19 recorded stock price gains during the first quarter and 23 saw their share prices decline -- many by double-digit amounts.

How does that compare with the stock markets overall? While the markets got off to a lousy start in 2016 and seemed to be in turmoil for much of the quarter, the Dow Jones Index was actually up 1.49 percent by the end of the first quarter -- but the Nasdaq was off 2.75 percent.

Here's a look at who was up and who was down in the first quarter of the year starting with companies with the biggest gains in share price, based on stock closing prices between Dec. 31, 2015, and March 31, 2016.

Verizon Communications

CEO: Lowell McAdam

Dec. 31, 2015: $46.22

March 31, 2016: $54.08

Change: +17.01%

Verizon Communications tops our stock price index of IT vendors for the first quarter, coming in with share price growth greater than 17 percent.

In late February, Verizon struck a deal to acquire fellow telecom company XO Communications for its fiber-optic network assets in a purchase worth about $1.8 billion. Earlier in the month Verizon said it was exiting the public cloud service market.

For its first quarter, ended March 31, Verizon reported revenue of $32.17 billion, up 0.6 percent from $31.98 billion in the same period one year before. Net income was $4.43 billion, up 2.1 percent from $4.34 billion one year before.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

CEO: Meg Whitman

Dec. 31, 2015: $15.20

March 31, 2016: $17.73

Change: +16.64%

As of Nov. 1, industry giant Hewlett-Packard Co. became two Fortune 50 companies: HP Inc., focused on the PC and printing business, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, focused on enterprise computing. Hewlett Packard Enterprise trades under the new stock symbol HPE.

Investors seem pleased with the performance of HPE so far, despite a 3 percent decline in revenue in the company's fiscal 2016 first quarter (ended Jan. 31), to $12.7 billion from $13.1 billion in the same quarter year earlier. Net earnings were $267 million, down 51 percent from $547 million one year before.

(HPE reported its historical quarterly results and year-over-year comparisons as if it had been a stand-alone company in fiscal 2015.)

Brocade Communications Systems

CEO: Lloyd Carney

Dec. 31, 2015: $9.18

March 31, 2016: $10.58

Change: +15.25%

On March 29, Brocade said it had acquired StackStorm, a provider of software for automating data center operations, for an undisclosed sum. On April 4, after the March 31 close of the period covered by this analysis, Brocade disclosed a deal to acquire wireless technology supplier Ruckus Wireless for $1.2 billion.

In February, Brocade reported that revenue in its fiscal 2016 first quarter (ended Jan. 30) was $574.3 million, down a third of a percentage point from $576.2 million in the same period one year earlier. But net income for the period was up more than 7 percent year over year, to $93.6 million from $87.3 million.

AT&T

CEO: Randall Stephenson

Dec. 31, 2015: $34.41

March 31, 2016: $39.17

Change: +13.83%

In February, AT&T said it expected to invest nearly $10 billion in 2016 to deliver integrated systems for businesses with its overall capital investment to be in the range of $22 billion. In March, the vendor unveiled an Internet of Things platform that partners could use to create integrated solutions and manage IoT environments for customers.

In January, AT&T acquired the software assets and staff of mobile device monitoring software developer Carrier iQ.

Oracle

CEOs: Safra Catz and Mark Hurd

Dec. 31, 2015: $36.53

March 31, 2016: $40.91

Change: +11.99%

In February, Oracle acquired Ravello Systems in a move Oracle said would expand its public cloud services offerings.

In March, the company said revenue in its fiscal 2016 third quarter (ended Feb. 29) was down 3 percent year over year, to $9.01 billion, compared with $9.33 billion in the third quarter of fiscal 2015. Net income was $2.14 billion, down 14 percent from just under $2.5 billion one year earlier.

IBM

CEO: Virginia Rometty

Dec. 31, 2015: $137.62

March 31, 2016: $151.45

Change: +10.05%

IBM was active on the acquisition front in the first quarter, snatching up eight companies to expand its product and service offerings. The biggest was Truven Health Analytics, a provider of cloud-based health-care data and analytics services, for $2.6 billion. On March 31, IBM disclosed a deal to acquire Blue Wolf Group, a leading strategic service provider, for an undisclosed sum.

For the company's first quarter, ended March 31, IBM reported revenue of $18.68 billion, down more than 4 percent from $19.59 billion one year earlier. Net income was $2.01 billion, down more than 13 percent from $2.33 billion one year before.

CommVault Systems

CEO: N. Robert Hammer

Dec. 31, 2015: $39.35

March 31, 2016: $43.17

Change: +9.71%

In January, Commvault, a developer of data protection and information management technologies, reported that revenue in its fiscal 2016 third quarter (ended Dec. 31) was $155.7 million, up nearly 2 percent from $153 million in the same quarter one year earlier. Net income for the quarter soared nearly 59 percent, to nearly $4.9 million from $3.1 million one year earlier.

F5 Networks

CEO: John McAdam

Dec. 31, 2015:$96.96

March 31, 2016:$105.85

Change: +9.17%

For the second quarter (ended March 31) of fiscal 2016 F5 Networks reported revenue of $483.7 million, up more than 2 percent from $472.1 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2015. But net income for the quarter was $75.4 million, down 12 percent from $85.7 million one year before.

CA Technologies

CEO: Michael Gregoire

Dec. 31, 2015: $28.56

March 31, 2016: $30.79

Change: +7.81%

CA Technologies has been reinventing itself with a focus on systems and cloud management, security and DevOps software.

In January, the company reported the results of its fiscal 2016 third quarter (ended Dec. 31), including a 5 percent decline in revenue, to $1.03 billion from $1.09 billion one year before. Net income was essentially flat year over year at $223 million.

Check Point Software Technologies

CEO: Gil Shwed

Dec. 31, 2015: $81.38

March 31, 2016: $87.47

Change: +7.48%

During Check Point Software Technologies' year-end earnings call in January, CEO Gil Schwed said the company was on the hunt for an acquisition in 2016, possible a blockbuster buy or just a small technology company. While there were reports the company was in talks to acquire CyberArk Software, those talks -- if true -- have yet to bear fruit.

For its first quarter, ended March 31, Check Point reported revenue of $404.3 million, up 9 percent from $372.6 million in the same period one year earlier. Net income for the most recent quarter was $167.4 million, up 4 percent from $160.9 million one year before.

Xerox

CEO: Ursula Burns

Dec. 31, 2015: $10.63

March 31, 2016: $11.16

Change: +4.99%

On Jan. 29, Xerox unveiled a plan to split into two companies, one focused on printers and other document technology hardware and the other on business process outsourcing services. Once the separation is complete later this year, the new companies will have annual sales of $11 billion and $7 billion, respectively.

The move, which follows a review of Xerox's strategic options launched late last year, is expected to maximize shareholder value and result in $2.4 billion in savings across both companies over the next three years.

Cisco Systems

CEO: Chuck Robbins

Dec. 31, 2015: $27.16

March 31, 2016: $28.47

Change: +4.82%

On Feb. 3, Cisco announced a deal to acquire Jasper Technologies, a developer of a cloud-based Internet of Things service platform, for $1.4 billion. The move will accelerate Cisco's expansion into IoT technologies and provide partners with a way to drive IoT-related sales, including launching IoT services.

Meanwhile, Chuck Robbins, who took the reins as CEO last year, launched a reorganization of the company's 25,000-member engineering operations into four groups targeting networking, security, cloud services and platforms.

HP Inc.

CEO: Dion Weisler

Dec. 31, 2015: $11.84

March 31, 2016: $12.32

Change: +4.05%

HP Inc. markets personal systems and printers. The company was created in November 2015 through the split of the old Hewlett-Packard Co. into HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. HP inherited the HPQ stock symbol of its predecessor.

On Feb. 24, the company announced its fiscal 2016 first quarter (ended Jan. 31) including revenue of $12.25 billion, down 12 percent from $13.86 billion in the same quarter one year before. Earnings were down 57 percent, to $592 million from $1.37 billion one year before.

(HP Inc. reported its historical quarterly results and year-over-year comparisons as if it had been a stand-alone company in fiscal 2015.)

Citrix Systems

CEO: Kirill Tatarinov

Dec. 31, 2015: $75.65

March 31, 2016: $78.58

Change: +3.87%

Citrix is coming off a turbulent year that included pressure from activist investor Elliott Management to make significant changes to its business strategy and corporate structure. The company endured two waves of layoffs and in November announced plans to spin off its GoTo line of Software-as-a-Service applications. And in midyear, longtime CEO Mark Templeton announced plans to leave, triggering a search for a replacement.

In January, Citrix named former Microsoft executive Kirill Tatarinov to be the company's new CEO. At Microsoft, Tatarinov managed the vendor's $2 billion Business Solutions division, including its Dynamics ERP and CRM software products, before leaving last June in an executive reshuffling.

For its first quarter, ended March 31, Citrix reported revenue of $825.7 million, up nearly 9 percent from $760.8 million in the same period one year earlier. Net income soared in the quarter, to $83.5 million from $28.9 million one year before.

EMC

CEO: Joe Tucci

Dec. 31, 2015: $25.68

March 31, 2016: $26.65

Change: +3.78%

EMC spent the first quarter preparing for its pending acquisition by Dell under the $67 billion deal announced last October. Despite potential hiccups along the way, including reports of snags in lining up financing for the deal, the acquisition remains on track to be completed sometime this year, possibly as early as May.

For its first quarter, ended March 31, EMC reported revenue of $5.48 billion, down more than 2 percent from $5.61 billion in the first quarter of 2015. But net income was up more than 6 percent, to $268 million compared with $252 million one year before.

Apple

CEO: Tim Cook

Dec. 31, 2015: $105.26

March 31, 2016: $108.99

Change: +3.54%

While it may not have directly impacted the company's finances or stock price, the big news surrounding Apple in the first quarter was its very public fight with the FBI over the law enforcement agency's demands that Apple help it unlock an iPhone owned by one of the attackers in the San Bernardino, Calif., shooting late last year.

In January, Apple reported revenue of $75.87 billion for its fiscal 2016 first quarter (ended Dec. 26), up nearly 2 percent from $74.60 billion one year earlier. Net income was $18.36 billion, also up nearly 2 percent year over year.

Lexmark International

CEO: Paul Rooke

Dec. 31, 2015: $32.45

March 31, 2016: $33.43

Change: +3.02%

In October, printer maker Lexmark began an "exploration of strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value." On April 19, after the first-quarter period covered by this analysis, Lexmark announced a deal to be acquired by Apex Technology Co. Ltd. and PAG Asia Capital for $40.50 a share, or about $3.6 billion.

That move followed a long period during which Lexmark was transitioning from a hardware-centric printer manufacturing company to focus more on document management software and print management solutions.

In February, the company reported that revenue for fiscal 2015, ended Dec. 31, was $982 million, down nearly 5 percent from $1.03 billion one year earlier.

NetApp

CEO: George Kurian

Dec. 31, 2015: $26.53

March 31, 2016: $27.29

Change: +2.86%

NetApp is another company that weathered a turbulent 2015, including struggling with declining revenue and implementing staff cutbacks of about 4 percent of its workforce. In June, the company fired CEO Tom Georgens, naming George Kurian, executive vice president of product operations, to replace him.

At year's end, in a bid to reverse its fortunes, NetApp struck a deal to acquire Solidfire, an all-flash storage array startup, for $870 million. That acquisition closed in February.

For its fiscal 2016 third quarter (ended Jan. 29), NetApp reported revenue of $1.39 billion, down more than 10 percent from $1.55 billion in the same period one year earlier. Net income was $153 million, down nearly 14 percent from $177 million one year before.

SAP

CEO: Bill McDermott

Dec. 31, 2015: $79.10

March 31, 2016: $80.42

Change: +1.67%

SAP has been undergoing a massive transformation from its core business of selling on-premise applications to providing cloud-based applications and services to customers of all sizes. In the first quarter, ended March 31, cloud subscription and cloud revenue grew 33 percent year over year.

SAP reported total revenue of just under 4.73 billion euro ($5.36 billion) for the quarter, up 5 percent from 4.5 billion euro ($5.10 billion) in the same period last year. After-tax profit soared 38 percent, to 570 million euro ($645.8 million) from 413 million euro ($467.8 million) one year earlier.

Microsoft

CEO: Satya Nadella

Dec. 31, 2015: $55.48

March 31, 2016: $55.23

Change: -0.45%

Microsoft is the first company in our wrapup to record a decline in its stock price in the first quarter of 2016.

In February, the software company struck a deal to acquire Xamarin for an undisclosed price. Xamarin supplies application development tools that let programmers build native iOS and Android apps using Microsoft's C# programming language. The move was the latest by Microsoft to make it easier for developers to build mobile apps by reusing code across multiple platforms.

For its fiscal 2016 third quarter, ended March 31, Microsoft reported revenue of $20.53 billion, down 5.5 percent from $21.73 billion in last year's third quarter. Net income in the quarter tumbled nearly 25 percent, to $3.76 billion from $4.99 billion one year earlier.

Advanced Micro Devices

CEO: Lisa Su

Dec. 31, 2015: $2.87

March 31, 2016: $2.85

Change: -0.70%

For its first quarter, ended March 26, chipmaker AMD reported revenue of $832 million, down 13 percent from $958 million in last year's first quarter. But the company's $109 million net loss for the quarter marked an improvement from the $180 million loss recorded in the same quarter one year earlier.

Fortinet

CEO: Ken Xie

Dec. 31, 2015: $31.17

March 31, 2016: $30.63

Change: -1.73%

In January, Fortinet, a provider of network security technology, reorganized its sales force in a move the company said would better position itself to handle multinational accounts and capitalize on its platform approach to drive profitability.

Also in January, the company reported that revenue for all of 2015 just surpassed the $1 billion mark, up from $770.4 million in 2014. But net income was just short of $8 million, compared with $25.3 million the year before.

The company also announced a $200 million stock repurchase program in January.

Alphabet (Google)

CEO: Larry Page

Dec. 31, 2015: $758.88

March 31, 2016: $744.95

Change: -1.84%

In 2015, Google created a new operating structure that included Alphabet, a holding company that includes the traditional Google businesses along with other nascent operations and projects. The new structure was effective Oct. 2 with every share of Google stock automatically converting to Alphabet stock.

Alphabet reported revenue of $20.26 billion in its first quarter ended, March 31, up 17 percent from $17.26 billion in the same period one year earlier. Net income was up nearly 20 percent, to $4.21 billion from $3.56 billion one year before.

Netgear

CEO: Patrick Lo

Dec. 31, 2015: $41.91

March 31, 2016: $40.37

Change: -3.67%

In February, Netgear reported that sales for all of 2015 were just over $1.30 billion, down more than 6 percent from more than $1.39 billion in 2014. But the networking products company reported a more than sixfold increase in net income, to $48.6 million in 2015 from $8.8 million in 2014.

Salesforce.com

CEO: Marc Benioff

Dec. 31, 2015: $78.40

March 31, 2016: $73.83

Change: -5.83%

Salesforce.com reported revenue of $6.67 billion in fiscal 2016 (ended Jan. 31), up 24 percent from $5.37 billion in fiscal 2015. Perhaps more important, the fast-growing company's loss for the year was $47.4 million, a marked improvement from the $262.7 million loss it recorded in fiscal 2015.

The cloud software company is forecasting that sales will reach $8.12 billion in fiscal 2017, and last year CEO Marc Benioff vowed to be the fastest software company -- and the first cloud company-- to hit the $10 billion revenue threshold.

Seagate Technology

CEO: Stephen Luczo

Dec. 31, 2015: $36.66

March 31, 2016: $34.45

Change: -6.03%

In January, storage technology manufacturer Seagate reported that revenue in its fiscal 2016 second quarter (ended Jan. 1) was $2.99 billion, down more than 19 percent from $3.70 billion in the same period one year earlier. Net income for the quarter, $165 million, was just a fraction of the $933 million profit in the same quarter one year before.

Intel

CEO: Brian Krzanich

Dec. 31, 2015: $34.45

March 31, 2016: $32.35

Change: -6.10%

Stagnant PC sales have meant slower revenue growth for Intel in recent years given its dependence on selling processors for that market. The company has struggled to compete in the market for chips for mobile devices, but it has been growing its sales of processors for data center systems, the nascent Internet of Things market and other emerging areas.

In March, Intel acquired Israel-based Replay Technologies, a 360-degree sports video replay technology company, in a move that's expected to help Intel expand into the promising virtual reality technology market.

For its first quarter, ended April 2, Intel reported revenue of $13.7 billion, up more than 7 percent from $12.78 billion in the same quarter one year before. Net income for the quarter was $2.05 billion, up nearly 3 percent from $1.99 billion one year earlier.

Palo Alto Networks

CEO: Mark McLaughlin

Dec. 31, 2015: $176.14

March 31, 2016: $163.14

Change: -7.38%

Palo Alto Networks reported that revenue in its fiscal 2016 second quarter ended Jan. 31 was $334.7 million, up 54 percent from $217.7 million in the same quarter one year before. But the cybersecurity technology developer's net loss widened to $62.5 million from the $43.0 million net loss reported one year earlier.

VMware

CEO: Pat Gelsinger

Dec. 31, 2015: $56.57

March 31, 2016: $52.31

Change: -7.53%

Given that EMC owns 80 percent of VMware's stock, the virtualization technology company's share price has suffered from the uncertainty created by Dell's pending $67 billion acquisition of EMC. While Dell and EMC executives have sworn that VMware is a key part of the Dell-EMC combination, VMware's stock value plummeted after the deal was announced and lost more than 31 percent of its value in the last quarter of 2015.

The shares continued falling in the first quarter, although at a slower rate. VMware also saw a number of top executives leave the company during the quarter, including President and CEO Carl Eschenbach and top software-defined networking executive Martin Casado.

For its first quarter, ended March 31, VMware reported revenue of $1.59 billion, up 5 percent from $1.51 billion one year before. But net income fell more than 17 percent, to $161 million in the first quarter from $196 million one year ago.

On April 19, VMware announced a $1.2 billion stock buyback program, but that was after the March 31 close of the period covered by this analysis.

Juniper Networks

CEO: Rami Rahim

Dec. 31, 2015: $27.60

March 31, 2016: $25.51

Change: -7.57%

In January, Juniper Networks struck a deal to acquire software networking specialist BTI Systems in a move that Juniper's channel partners said would boost the vendor's software sales.

Preliminary results for Juniper's first quarter, ended March 31, include revenue in the range of $1.09 billion and $1.1 billion, below the company's earlier guidance of revenue between $1.15 billion and $1.19 billion, primarily because of weaker-than-expected demand from enterprise customers and delayed deployments for a number of "tier one" U.S. and international telecommunications customers. Final results will be reported April 28.

Qlik Technologies

CEO: Lars Bjork

Dec. 31, 2015: $31.66

March 31, 2016: $28.92

Change: -8.65%

Qlik Technologies is a developer of data analysis and visualization software, competing with business analytics software from vendors such as Tableau, SAP and Microsoft.

In February, the company said revenue in 2015 was $612.7 million, up 10 percent from $556.8 million in 2014. But the company reported a $36.5 million loss for the year, compared with a loss of $24.6 million in 2014.

Red Hat

CEO: James Whitehurst

Dec. 31, 2015: $82.81

March 31, 2016: $74.51

Change: -10.02%

Red Hat cracked the $2 billion threshold in its fiscal 2016, ended Feb. 29, with the open-source software developer reporting that revenue reached $2.05 billion during the year, up nearly 15 percent from $1.79 billion in fiscal 2015. Net income for the fiscal year was $199.4 million, up more than 10 percent from $180.2 in fiscal 2015.

Amazon

CEO: Jeff Bezos

Dec. 31, 2015: $675.89

March 31, 2016: $593.64

Change: -12.17%

Amazon's share price more than doubled in value in 2015, so perhaps it was inevitable that its stock would return to earth a bit in the new year.

But the online behemoth's growth hasn't slowed. In January, the company reported that sales for all of 2015 were $107.0 billion, up 20 percent from 89.0 billion in 2014. And the company reported a profit of $596 million for the year, compared with a $241 million loss the year before.

Of particular interest in the IT industry is the explosive growth of the company's Amazon Web Services business, which reached sales of $2.4 billion in the fourth quarter and delivered $687 million in profit.

Symantec

CEO: Michael Brown

Dec. 31, 2015: $21.00

March 31, 2016: $18.38

Change: -12.48%

More than a year after announcing a plan to spin off Veritas, its data management technology unit, Symantec completed that split on Jan. 29 by selling Veritas to a private equity firm and emerging as a company focused solely on its security products.

Less than a week later, Symantec announced a $500 million strategic investment from private equity firm Silver Lake.

BlackBerry

CEO: John Chen

Dec. 31, 2015: $9.28

March 31, 2016: $8.09

Change: -12.82%

In early February, BlackBerry laid off some 200 employees at its Waterloo, Ontario, and Sunrise, Fla., offices. The company said the move was part of its effort to focus on security software, services and Android smartphones tailored for the enterprise market.

Later in February, BlackBerry acquired Encription, a British cybersecurity consulting company, to extend BlackBerry's plans to secure mobile communications across all platforms.

For fiscal 2016, ended Feb. 29, BlackBerry reported revenue of $2.16 billion, down 35 percent from $3.34 billion in fiscal 2015. The company reported a loss of $208 million for fiscal 2016, compared with a loss of $304 million one year before.

FireEye

CEO: David DeWalt

Dec. 31, 2015: $20.74

March 31, 2016: $17.99

Change: -13.26%

In early February, security software developer FireEye launched FireEye Essentials, a lower-cost, lower-complexity edition of its FireEye Global Threat Management Platform designed for the midmarket.

Also in February, FireEye acquired Invotas, a supplier of security orchestration and automation technology. Just a few weeks earlier, the company bought iSight Partners, a prominent developer of threat-intelligence monitoring software.

For all of 2015, FireEye reported revenue of $623.0 million, up 46 percent from $425.7 million in 2014. But the company's net loss in 2015 grew almost 22 percent, to $539.2 million from $443.8 million in 2014.

Splunk

CEO: Doug Merritt

Dec. 31, 2015: $58.81

March 31, 2016: $48.93

Change: -16.80%

For all of fiscal 2016, ended Jan. 31, Splunk, a fast-growing developer of real-time operational intelligence technology, reported revenue of $668.4 million, up 48 percent from $450.9 million in fiscal 2015. The company's net loss for fiscal 2016 was $278.8 million, compared with the $217.1 million net loss the company reported for fiscal 2015.

In February, Splunk formed an alliance with Verizon under which the telecommunications giant enhanced its flagship Managed Security Services platform by integrating analytics from Splunk Enterprise Security systems.

NetSuite

CEO: Zach Nelson

Dec. 31, 2015: $84.62

March 31, 2016: $68.49

Change: -19.06%

NetSuite has continued to grow its sales at a consistent quarterly and annual rate between 30 percent and 35 percent. But profitability has remained elusive for the cloud application vendor and that has taken a toll on the company's share price in recent quarters.

In 2015, the company's revenue grew 33 percent, to $741.1 million. But the company's loss for the year was $124.7 million, compared with a $100 million loss in 2014.

On March 2, NetSuite acquired IQuity's cloud business in a move that allowed NetSuite to add next-generation manufacturing capabilities to its ERP cloud application suite and meet the needs of both discrete and batch process manufacturers. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Western Digital

CEO: Steve Milligan

Dec. 31, 2015: $60.05

March 31, 2016: $47.24

Change: -21.33%

Western Digital, one of the leading manufacturers of hard disk drives, struck a $19 billion deal to acquire SanDisk in October in a bid to accelerate its transition from disk drives to solid-state data storage. SanDisk is a leading manufacturer of flash memory storage microprocessors. In March, Western Digital shareholders approved the issuance of common stock in connection with the deal, but the companies have yet to close the acquisition.

On March 30, Western Digital announced the pricing of $1.875 billion of senior secured notes and $3.35 billion of senior unsecured notes. That offering closed April 13.

Lenovo Group

CEO: Yang Yuanqing

Dec. 31, 2015: $20.08

March 31, 2016: $15.54

Change: -22.61%

Lenovo has hit hard by the worldwide slowdown in PC sales and that took a toll on the company's revenue and earnings in 2015.

In March, the company shuffled its executive leadership, naming Emilio Ghilardi president of Lenovo North America and Aymar de Lencquesaing as chairman and president of Motorola Mobility and co-president of the company's mobile business.

Quantum

CEO: Jon Gacek

Dec. 31, 2015: $0.93

March 31, 2016: $0.61

Change: -34.41%

For its fiscal 2016 third quarter, ended Dec. 31, storage technology developer Quantum reported revenue of $128.0 million, down nearly 10 percent from $142.1 million in the same quarter one year earlier. The company reported a $299,000 loss, compared with a $6.9 million net profit in the same quarter one year before.

Tableau Software

CEO: Christian Chabot

Dec. 31, 2015: $94.22

March 31, 2016: $45.87

Change: -51.32%

Data visualization and analytics software developer Tableau went public in May 2013 at $47 a share, and since then, the company has continued to ride the big data technology wave.

On Feb. 4. Tableau reported that revenue grew 58 percent, to $653.6 million, in 2015, compared with $412.6 million in 2014. But the company's net loss surged to $83.7 million for the year, compared with the $5.9 million loss reported for 2014.

Expectations are high for the company, and its stock lost nearly 50 percent of its value Feb. 5 because of what financial analysts viewed as weak guidance for future growth and concerns about growing competition from Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and other big companies in business analytics software.